Conventional security tags for affixing to an article to operate with the electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems for inventory control or anti-theft operations generally have two types of attaching mechanisms. The first type of attaching mechanism is releasable by a finger key to mechanically probe and push an unlocking mechanism to detach the tag. The second type of attaching mechanism is releasable by applying a magnetic detacher to magnetically pull up a metallic spring and release a locking pin. These two types of tags are not mutually compatible and every tag can be operable only with one type of detaching machines. The applicability of either type of security tags is therefore limited only to only one system thus limiting the scopes of the marketability of the tags and that often causes inconvenience and cost increase due to this limitation.
Another disadvantage often associated with a mechanical type of tags is the grooves employed for engaging and locking the pin for securely locking the tag. During the unlocking process, in pulling out the pin, the grooves on the pin with sharp edges, as that required for engaging and securely locking the pin, may pull the threads of the more delicate fabric materials or materials wrapped around the pin thus causing damages to the attached articles. Even with special cares, the damages may still occur and that make the application of this types of tags less than desirable on more delicate fabrics even when these clothes made with delicate fabrics are often more expensive and must be more closely monitored.
For the purpose of inventory control and anti-theft by unauthorized removal of an article from a control area, electronic article surveillance systems are established with system transmitter and system receiver to establish a surveillance zone. An EAS tag is attached to each protected article. The tag includes a marker or a sensor to interact with a signal transmitted by the system transmitter to the surveillance zone. The interaction generates another signal received by the system receiver. Thus when a protected article is removed to a surveillance zone, a signal is received by the system receiver to indicate an EAS tagged article is removed to the surveillance zone without proper authorization. In order to provide reusable tags, the EAS tags typically include releasable attachment mechanism to attach the tag to the protected article and then released by authorized persons when the protected article is authorized to move to a surveillance zone. By allowing an authorized person to release the tag from an attached article by the use of special tools or detachers, the alarm signal of article removal will be received only when the removal is unauthorized.
Many prior art patents have disclosed different types of attaching and detaching mechanisms to implement on an EAS tag. These patents include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,914,829, 3,942,829, 3,947,930, 4,311,992, 5,031,756, and 5,426,419 are herein incorporated by reference in this Application. As the tags disclosed in these Patents employ the mechanical detachers, the tags are not compatible and not operable with a magnetic detacher.
However, as discussed above, the detaching mechanisms for conventional attachment mechanisms are limited by their applications only to either the mechanical or magnetic types of detachers. For these reasons, a need still exists in the art of design and manufacturing of the EAS tag attachment-detachment mechanisms to provide new and improved designs and configurations to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to overcome such limitations.